The next few nights, I stayed at the Curtis, returning to my house only to pack a bag of clothes so I wouldn't have to wear Soda's all the time. There was a note from my mom on my bed, along with my old teddy bear which she must have taken off the shelf. I placed both in the bag with my clothes, vowing to read the note later. Then I left the house, closing the door behind me. I didn't want to stick around in case my father showed up. So far, I had managed to avoid him and I planned to keep it that way.

"Stopped by your place to grab some clothes?" Darry asked when I entered the Curtis' home carrying my bag over my shoulder.

I nodded as I let the bag slide off of my shoulder and onto the floor, shoving it out of the way with my foot. "I can't wear Soda's clothes all the time."

"Pony does." Soda joked as he came out of the kitchen with a glass of chocolate milk. I could tell that he had just got home from work by the way his DX shirt laid in a crumpled heap on the floor.

"That's because the two of us don't make enough to get new clothes all the time." Darry said as he looked up at Soda from the chair. "When you finish your chocolate milk, pick up your DX shirt and toss it in the wash with the rest of your dirty laundry."

Soda looked at me and grinned. "Are you sure you want to stay here?"

"It's either here or at Two-Bit's." I replied. "At least I know I'm coming here to a clean house."

"Two-Bit's house isn't that bad." Soda said as he finished the last of his chocolate milk. "His mom keeps it clean."

"I was talking about his room." I replied with a grin. "The last time I saw it, I couldn't see the carpet underneath all the junk."

Darry laughed, knowing as well as I did that Two-Bit isn't known for doing house work, although he wil help clean up a mess if he helped make it. Darry always makes sure that Ponyboy and Soda help out around the house, especially since social services check up on them once a month. The last thing they want is for social services to decide to seperate them and put Ponyboy and Soda in a boys home. If they ever got seperated, they'd lose the only family they have left which is each other. And I'd lose my best friend. I can't imagine not having Soda around.

"Hey Steve, do you want to help me put my laundry in the wash?" Soda asked. "That way you'll know how to use our washer when you do your own laundry."

I followed him to his room where he grabbed a laundry basket full of clothes, dropping the DX shirt on the pile and then we went down stairs into the basement where they kept the washer and drier. Their basement is small and used mostly for storage and doing laundry. I knew they had a lot of their parent's things down there that they didn't want to get rid of but couldn't bring themselves to look at.

"Was your father at your house when you got your clothes?" Soda asked me as I watched him put detergent into the washer.

"If he was there, I would have waited to get my clothes until he was gone." I replied.

Soda turned and looked at me. "You'll have to face him sooner or later, you know that don't you?"

I nodded. "And I prefer later."

Soda sighed and turned on the washing machine before leading the way back upstairs. I knew he wanted to say more, but thought he'd be wasting his time if he did and maybe he was right. I had my mind made up and it was hard to change it. Besides, Soda and I have only got into one fight in all the years we've been friends. And I knew he didn't want to get into another one, especially since I was staying at his house.

When we got back upstairs, Darry was starting dinner and Ponyboy was sitting at the table doing homework. Darry had this rule about doing homework or at least starting it before dinner. At least that's what I think since Pony is usually working on homework while dinner is being prepared. Darry always makes sure that Pony's homework is done by the end of the night, something my parents rarely did and Darry is only twenty-one.

"I think I'll start my homework too," I said as I got my books and sat at the table with Ponyboy. He looked up from his biology book long enough to raise his eyebrows at me. I usually did my homework in the living room in front of the television, but I thought I'd join the kid and do my homework at the kitchen table.

"You went to your place, didn't you?" Pony asked softly so Darry and Soda wouldn't hear.

"Yeah, I just grabbed a bunch of my clothes." I replied. "and no, my father wasn't there."

"I wasn't going to ask if your father was there." Ponyboy said. "You wouldn't have gone in there if he was."

It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. "How did you know? Even Soda asked if my father was there."

Pony shrugged. "I figured if you wanted to go to your house when your old man was there that you would have done so by now."

I have to admit that I was surprised that Ponyboy said that considering that he doesn't know me as well as Soda does. It almost made me feel like he understood. But I knew there was no way he could ever understand what my home life was like because even Soda didn't even know much about that area of my life. Still, I was glad that Ponyboy didn't make a big deal about me avoiding my father.